Resolve to be a more effective parent this year
We often hear of New Year's Resolutions for people to start exercising more, eat healthier, stop smoking, etc., but this year, how about adding some resolutions to help make you a more effective parent?
Is there anything you would like to, or need to, change about your parenting techniques?

Is there a behavior or habit of your child that you wish you could help change?

Here are some parenting resolutions that you may consider making to help your child lead a healthy and happy life:

Be A Good Role Model

The New Year's Resolutions that you set for yourself are important. Most parents do not realize the amount of influence they have over their children.
Children are more likely to smoke, have an unhealthy diet, not wear a bicycle helmet or seatbelts, and be overweight if one or both parents have these bad habits.

In addition to avoiding bad habits, you also want to model good behaviors and activities, such as not letting your temper get out of control, not making racist or insensitive comments about other people, and teach your children how to handle frustration, how to share, etc. 

Effective Discipline

Learning to effectively discipline your children is important, both to teach them how to behave and to minimize bad behaviors. Remember that discipline and punishment are not the same thing. If you are having problems disciplining your child, then get some help. All children are different, and what works for one may not work for another, so you may not be doing anything wrong, but you may need to learn some alternative methods.
Also remember that teaching is a big part of discipine. If your older child hits or has a tantrum, a time-out or taking away a privilage may let him know that it wasn't the right thing to do, but he won't know what is the right thing unless you show him. Take some time after your child gets in trouble to explain or model a better or more appropriate behavior.

Most importantly, when your child gets in trouble, stay calm, avoid physical punishment, be consistent and learn to reward and praise good behavior to reinforce it.

Learn to Understand Your Child

Do you understand why your child does the things he does?
Why does a toddler look at you and then hit his brother or throw something on the floor? Doesn't he know it is wrong? Maybe, but he likely isn't doing it to be mean or bad. Most children try to explore their limits and see what they can do. It is a normal part of development, and if you understand your child's reasoning, you are less likely to get mad and give too big a reaction, which may reinforce a bad behavior.

Why does your older child always leave her clothes on the floor? Doesn't she know she is going to get in trouble? It depends on how you handle it, as to whether or not she will learn to stop doing it. How do you handle a situation like this? Do you just yell a few times and constantly remind her to pick up her clothes? Does it turn into a fight? Unless you are firm and consistent and avoid negative reinforcement, you are unlikely to fix a problem like this. Often, just delaying a disliked chore, like cleaning up her room, even if it is just for a few minutes or hours, can reinforce a child's behavior. So what should you do? It can be helpful if you just calming remind her to pick up her clothes. If she still doesn't do it, then remind her again and tell her that if she doesn't do it, then you will, and she won't be able to wear them again for a few weeks or months. If she still doesn't pick them up, then offer no more reminders or discussion. Just calmly pick up her clothes and put them away for the set amount of time. If it is a favorite shirt or sweater, not being able to wear it should teach her to be more mindful of her chores.

Many parents often unknowingly reinforce their child's bad behaviors by providing too much negative attention, not enough positive attention and by being inconsistent. If you don't understand why your child does what he does, and your discipline techniques aren't working, then get some professional help, especially if the behaviors are getting 'out of control' or are causing tension in the family.

Teach Your Children to Eat Healthy

Most parents need to stop telling their children to clean their plates at each meal. Instead, your child should learn to eat until he feels full. If he consistently leaves half of his meal on his plate, then as long as he is growing and developing normally, if it really bothers you for your child to leave food on his plate, then you may consider giving him small portions so that he will be more likely to finish everything. Also, provide healthy choices, including fruits, vegetables, lean meats and low fat dairy products (once your child is 2-3 years old), and limit the amount of juice, soda, and high sugar and high fat foods that your kids eat.

Encourage Regular Physical Activity

An increasing number of children and adolescents are becoming overweight, partly because of a poor diet and partly because of too many sedantary behaviors, such as watching TV, and playing video and computer games.

Communicate Effectively

Learning to communicate with their children is a very important skill that all parents should know, especially for older children and teens. Do you know how to talk to your kids? Do your kids come to you when they have a problem?
There are a lot of things that you need to talk with your children about, including sex education, and avoiding smoking, drugs and alcohol use. Have you talked to your older child about these important topics yet?

Know Your Kids

Do you know everything you need to know about your kids?
What are their friends like?
Do they have a best friend?
Where do they spend their time when they are not in school or at home?
Do they, or do any of their friends, drink, smoke, or use drugs?
Do they have a boyfriend or girlfriend?
Are they sexually active?

Be Prepared

Do you know what you will do the first time you are faced with a specific parenting problem, such as your child lying, stealing, skipping school, etc.? You can't prepare for every situation, but a little advanced planning can help when you are faced with a common, although difficult parenting problem.
Planning in advance can also help deal with difficult children and those with behavior problems. If you child always has a tantrum when you go grocery shopping, then sit him down outside the store and let him know what your expectations for his behavior will be and have a plan for what to do if he misbehaves, such as a time-out in the store or removing a privilage for the rest of the day.

If you just 'wing it', or do or say the first thing that pops into your head, you are more likely to react negatively and just yell or hit when your child misbehaves. In the long run, those reactions will likely not decrease bad behaviors.

Ref. http://pediatrics.about.com